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Any suggestions about managing leaks with the wisp mask. Out of all the masks I trialled this was by far the best. Now that I'm starting to settle into some sort of routine, I'm finding some leakage when I roll onto my side when I'm asleep. I actually have a suspicion that I'm over-tightening the mask! My maximum pressure rarely gets much over 12cm. My 95% pressure reading is 9cm.

(09-04-2013, 04:10 AM)BrisVegas17 Wrote: Any suggestions about managing leaks with the wisp mask. Out of all the masks I trialled this was by far the best. Now that I'm starting to settle into some sort of routine, I'm finding some leakage when I roll onto my side when I'm asleep. I actually have a suspicion that I'm over-tightening the mask! My maximum pressure rarely gets much over 12cm. My 95% pressure reading is 9cm.

The conventional wisdom here is that looser is better. With the Wisp I found the opposite. I had to tighten it up quite a bit, and even then it leaked too much. Eventually I tried a chin strap on top of the Wisp, and that finally got my leaks under control.

I would recommend experimenting with the tightness. Change it only every five or six days so you can get a good view of the average results. Also, be sure you have the right cushion for your face. If you're unsure, experiment with other cushions, and again, give each change several days.

Still getting used to understanding the data. Going from my download into SleepyHead, my 95% leak figure is 23 over the last 7 days. Not sure if that means 23 an hour or what. It doesn't give any units of measure I can see. Sorry mate.

Not even sure if that figure is significant but what I can say is that the leaks get very annoying! I describe them as micro jets shooting into my eyes.

(09-05-2013, 03:46 AM)BrisVegas17 Wrote: Still getting used to understanding the data. Going from my download into SleepyHead, my 95% leak figure is 23 over the last 7 days. Not sure if that means 23 an hour or what. It doesn't give any units of measure I can see. Sorry mate.
Not even sure if that figure is significant but what I can say is that the leaks get very annoying! I describe them as micro jets shooting into my eyes.

Ah! Now I think I understand better what your complaint is.

First, the leak is in liters of air per hour. The 95% figures means that your leak was under this figure 95% of the time. The maximum is the highest rate it reached during the night.

But having said that, there are intentional and unintentional leaks. The intentional leaks are created by the little ventilation holes somewhere in the front of the mask. If there was no intentional leak you would suffocate from re-breathing your own air over and over. The used air has to escape into the room. The unintentional leak is the bad one, typically caused by a bad seal of the mask against the skin. If your unintentional leak is over 24 L/hour the quality of the therapy is impaired.

Someone will have to correct me if my memory has failed; it's been quite a while since I used a Respironics. If I remember correctly, for Respironics machines the 95% and maximum leak figures that you see in Sleepyhead are the total of intentional and unintentional leaks. The intentional is typically around 30 L/hour, depending on the mask. So your figures mean that your leaks are negligible.

Now, as to your specific complaint, I understand exactly what is bothering you because it bothers me too, and I have read here from others who complain about it, that is, the ventilation holes are designed so the exhaust air blows straight up into your eyes. I have considered gluing a little curved semi-circle piece of stiff paper or plastic just above the holes to divert the flow away from my face.

The Wisp was designed this way because a frequent complaint about other masks comes from the bed-mate of the user. The companion does not like the air from the mask blowing onto them. I think the manufacturer had high ideals here, but ended up trading one complaint for another.

The long and the short of it is that there is nothing you can do about this, short of my diverter idea. Whatever you do, do not seal up the holes; doing so could be fatal.

Your last line reminds me of when I went through uni years ago. One of my professors was explaining about a drug side effect and stated "...and it may cause death - which is not a desirable side effect".

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